Of BooBoos and Trading Cards
by Artemis Ignitan
Summary: Written for Riding Duel's Secret Santa Fic Challenge, for Seraphim Lament on LJ. Crow watches over his orphans. He's more of the motherly type than he thought he'd be. Crow x Pet Orphans familial fluff.


**(A/N): Wrote this for yet another challenge on Riding Duel. This one was for the Secret Santa Fic Challenge, in which we posted our ficcing wish lists and had them swapped around randomly so that everyone would write someone else's request. We would then post them between Christmas Eve and the end of December. I was assigned to seraphim_lament, who requested something about either Crow and Yuusei, Crow and Kiryuu, Crow and his orphans, or Team Satisfaction. I've done everything but Crow and his orphans, so...why not give them a go, I thought?**

**So, enjoy ficcage about Crow and his orphan kidlets!  
**

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**Of Boo-Boos and Trading Cards**

Kids didn't enjoy being alone.

Crow remembers the times when he was on his own. Hiding in every empty trash can, inside every alley, behind every wall. Always scared, always alone, not knowing where his next meal would come from, not knowing...much of anything, really.

Finding his first card brought him his first read words. His first numbers. His first calculations. His first friends. They brought him everything.

While it seemed odd to Yuusei and stupid to Jack (and completely reckless and idiotic to Martha) that he would continue getting his face marked up for the sake of bringing his kids pieces of cardboard (rather than food, as Martha kept insisting), to Crow it made perfect sense. He couldn't teach them the same way the cards did.

Seeing their faces light up every time he brought them something always made whatever effort he went through for them worth it.

----

Kids, being kids, didn't always get along with each other.

Crow knew this well from the days of his youth-he and Jack found something to fight with about almost everything, and he and Yuusei didn't escape their share of scrapping either.

Finding bandages that weren't dirtied from the streets was a difficult task, however, and antiseptic wasn't cheap. So he encouraged his kids not to fight as much as they could (now he saw why Martha was so annoyed with them, besides the whole not getting along with each other business). And in his opinion, they were the best-mannered bunch of kids in the whole of Satellite.

However, injuries still happened far too often. Paper cuts from cards. Legs torn open with metal shards after climbing up and down the garbage piles (which meant additional costs for stitches and tetanus shots-thank the heavens Martha was friends with Doctor Schmitt). And of course, the scratches and bruises from when hair-pulling and name-calling went too far.

Still, it was hard to be angry with his kids when they sniffled throughout the whole bandaging process, looking on with tear-filled eyes as the antiseptic was applied gingerly to their wounds and covered with cloth.

"You alright there?"

"U-Uh-huh..."

"You get what you did wrong, right?"

"Y...Yeah, Crow-niichan..."

"So now you know not to do that again, ah?"

"Mm-hm. I won't do it again. Promise."

"Cross your heart and hope to fly, kiddo?"

A quick nod of the head and the kid was off playing as if nothing had happened. They always looked genuinely regretful and as if they had learned their lesson, so he always let them off with little punishment-at most, a time out in his hut. And there would be peace among the bunch of kids, and they'd be merrily playing together as always.

...At least, until the next injury came along.

----

Kids were a virtual magnet for all sorts of illnesses.

Crow remembered how Martha would fret even over the smallest cold, and couldn't understand why she would angrily insist on him taking that horrible medicine she'd make him swallow. How she'd insist he'd stay inside until the whole thing blew over. He'd always thought she was overreacting...

Until his kids had their first run in with the common cold.

Crow immediately fell into a state of panic, finding reasons to worry almost everywhere. There wasn't enough cold medicine. The soup wasn't filling enough. The kids wanted to play outside, but that would make the cold worse. Granted, his shack wasn't the best place for them either...too drafty...He spent half a day finding things to patch up the holes in the walls...

Still, Crow was still somewhat of a kid himself. It didn't take him long to identify with his kids.

So he bundled them up as best as he could and herded them outside for a simple game of catch.

----FIN----

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**(A/N): Usual begging for reviews inserted here.**


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